JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, July 24, 2025

Heat in House over Paria Fuel deal

by

Gail Alexander
1853 days ago
20200626
Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal makes his contribution during the Private Motion he moved calling on the House to censure the Speaker during yesterday’s sitting of Parliament.

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal makes his contribution during the Private Motion he moved calling on the House to censure the Speaker during yesterday’s sitting of Parliament.

OFFICE OF THE PARLIAMENT

There was thun­der­ous heat in the Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day over House Speak­er Bridgid An­nisette-George.

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress MP Roodal Mooni­lal called on An­nisette-George to “take a walk” out of the Par­lia­ment cham­ber and apol­o­gise for fail­ing to re­cuse her­self from a mat­ter he tried to raise in Par­lia­ment in April, which in­volved Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Ltd where her hus­band is chair­man.

“I call for a pub­lic apol­o­gy from the Speak­er for her con­duct on this mat­ter,” Mooni­lal de­clared.

But Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, prais­ing the Speak­er’s tenure, slammed Mooni­lal’s ac­cu­sa­tions as an at­tempt to save his UNC can­di­da­cy.

“We see this as some­one (Mooni­lal) try­ing to gain favour ... an op­por­tu­ni­ty to tar­nish the Speak­er in a bid to pro­mote him­self…” Row­ley re­tort­ed.

Both faced off—fol­lowed by oth­er front­line UNC and PNM MPs —dur­ing yes­ter­day’s heat­ed de­bate on a mo­tion which Mooni­lal pre­sent­ed ac­cus­ing An­nisette-George of fail­ing to act prop­er­ly in the mat­ter he tried to raise on April 27.

This con­cerned al­leged sale by Paria Fu­el Trad­ing of fu­el to ES Eu­ro Ship­ping which lat­er al­leged­ly redi­rect­ed to Venezuela, in con­tra­ven­tion of in­ter­na­tion­al sanc­tions.

Mooni­lal said An­nisette-George’s hus­band (New­man George) was made Paria chair­man in Au­gust 2019. His mo­tion claimed An­nisette-George in rul­ing that his April mat­ter didn’t qual­i­fy un­der Stand­ing Or­der 17, “failed to de­clare a pos­si­ble con­flict of in­ter­est.” He claimed the Speak­er breached es­tab­lished rules of con­duct and con­ven­tions of the Low­er House and the House should cen­sure her fail­ure to act prop­er­ly and im­par­tial­ly.

Yes­ter­day’s de­bate was presided over by Deputy Speak­er Es­mond Forde, since An­nisette-George re­cused her­self from pro­ceed­ings.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley makes his contribution during debate on a Motion of Censure against the House Speaker during yesterday’s sitting of Parliament.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley makes his contribution during debate on a Motion of Censure against the House Speaker during yesterday’s sitting of Parliament.

OFFICE OF THE PARLIAMENT

Mooni­lal said An­nisette-George act­ed im­prop­er­ly out­side of her terms un­der Mays’ Par­lia­men­tary Prac­tice (the Par­lia­men­tary rule­book) and the In­tegri­ty in Pub­lic Life Act. He said his April mo­tion con­cerned “in­ter­na­tion­al scan­dal re­ports on the fu­el is­sue and he pre­sent­ed the mo­tion to give Gov­ern­ment an op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­firm or de­ny.”

“The Speak­er should have re­alised it was in the pub­lic do­main, it in­volved Paria Trad­ing. The spouse of the Speak­er was made Paria’s chair­man in Au­gust 2019,” he said.

“The Speak­er ought to have had the deputy Speak­er to han­dle the mo­tion… there’s per­ceived con­flict of in­ter­est, as it in­volved the spouse of madame Speak­er. But on April 27 I was in shock to see she sat in the chair to ad­ju­di­cate on this mat­ter ... she should have re­cused her­self!”

Mooni­lal said the sec­ond “strike” against An­nisette-George was af­ter he wrote to the US Am­bas­sador on the fu­el ship­ment is­sue not­ing his Par­lia­ment mo­tion was turned down. He said An­nisette-George sub­se­quent­ly con­demned his ac­tion in a state­ment un­der the Par­lia­ment agen­da item for “an­nounce­ments.”

“It’s the first time since 1962 a Speak­er used an agen­da item for ‘An­nounce­ments’ to con­demn an MP. She said I made state­ment and com­mu­ni­cat­ed with for­eign emis­saries. But she didn’t say there was con­flict (of in­ter­est) in the mat­ter. She ought not to have en­gaged her­self in pol­i­tics by hid­ing be­hind ‘An­nounce­ments’ to un­der­mine my rights! She was com­plainant, judge, ju­ry and ex­e­cu­tion­er.’’

He said the Speak­er could have made a state­ment in pub­lic but she used Par­lia­ment’s priv­i­lege to pro­tect her­self in case he took le­gal ac­tion.

Not­ing the Speak­er over the term told MPs to ‘take a walk’ out of the cham­ber – when tem­pers flared, he called on her now to al­so “take a walk... The mat­ter is alive - there can be no con­clu­sion un­less she re­sponds in some form.”

Speak­er did out­stand­ing job —Row­ley

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said yes­ter­day that UNC MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal mo­tion was fu­tile and a waste of Par­lia­ment’s valu­able time.

“This is a stretch,” Row­ley said of Mooni­lal’s ac­cu­sa­tions.

“He has prob­lems - he’s fight­ing for his po­lit­i­cal sur­vival, he has to find a way hop­ing not to be washed away. It’s a waste of our time he chose to file this mo­tion to raise his pro­file when they (UNC) screen them­selves. We see a des­per­ate MP in a des­per­ate bid to save his ca­reer.”

“This is the B team, every one of them (gone),” Row­ley added.

Row­ley said the Speak­er is sup­posed to ad­ju­di­cate on a mo­tion to see if it’s ac­cept­able and she ruled the con­tent of the mo­tion didn’t qual­i­fy.

“There­fore, there was no busi­ness be­fore the House,” he said.

Say­ing Mooni­lal wasn’t a fre­quent as­so­ci­a­tor with “ve­rac­i­ty,” he ac­cused Op­po­si­tion mem­bers of “cre­at­ing a sto­ry” that Paria had vi­o­lat­ed US sanc­tions by send­ing fu­el to Venezuela.

“That al­le­ga­tion found it­self in Reuters, land­ed in Op­po­si­tion hands and since then they’re milk­ing it like a cow – but it’s been shown be­yond any re­pu­di­a­tion that al­le­ga­tion has no ba­sis in fact. No-one has been able to show what Paria’s said on the is­sue isn’t true.”

He said no fu­el was sold to Venezuela as the UNC al­leged, yet Anisette-George’s hus­band was per­ceived as be­ing guilty and it was per­ceived she should have re­cused her­self on Mooni­lal’s mat­ter. He asked if there was no ba­sis for the mat­ter, what she was sup­posed to re­cuse her­self from.

Row­ley lashed Mooni­lal’s state­ments as be­ing de­void of fact and “loaded with mal­ice and nas­ti­ness.” He not­ed ef­forts had to be made to ex­pel Mooni­lal from a com­mit­tee af­ter he was the sub­ject of tes­ti­mo­ny to the com­mit­tee from the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er. He said al­though there was con­flict of in­ter­est, Mooni­lal re­fused to ab­sent him­self. Row­ley said Mooni­lal, in the cur­rent is­sue, was be­ing “down­right hyp­o­crit­i­cal.”

Mooni­lal protest­ed, “He not ad­dress­ing Gabriel Faria here!”

Row­ley said the Speak­er has done an out­stand­ing job “for which the peo­ple will be grate­ful.” He said she had so well con­duct­ed her­self in the five years that to have her char­ac­ter be­ing called in­to ques­tion was the un­kind­est cut.

“Our Speak­er is an ex­em­plar to whom every par­ent can point and say ‘I want you to be like Bridgid An­nisette-George’ and any at­tempt by UNC will be de­feat­ed and re­ject­ed by those of us on this side who be­lieve there must be a lev­el be­neath which you will not sink in your des­per­a­tion for po­lit­i­cal en­ter­tain­ment in T&T.”

Row­ley was in­ter­rupt­ed many times by ob­ject­ing UNC MPs. Deputy Speak­er Forde al­so had to warn MPs to put on their masks.

Politics


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored